Saturday, August 31, 2013

Orientation so far!

Where to begin? Since landing in Malaysia about a week ago everything
has been a whirlwind! We had a lot of
sessions to familiarize ourselves with the city, and the wonderful people of
Sabah. After hanging out in the city for
a few days our country group retreated to the mountains to escape the heat of
the city. This was a great time filled
with exploring Mt. Kinabalu and seeing the summit that I hope to hike later
this year with some of my fellow YAGM’s.
After returning to the city we had a day to explore the islands near the
city, and our group settled on Manukan Island for the day. It was great to spend the day in the waters
of the South China Sea. We met up with Peter,
our country coordinator, later that even after a scavenger hunt asking and receiving
help from the locals since all of the directions were written in Malay.

We packed and headed to Kuala Lumpur the day after our Island trip. I was pumped to get to KL since it will be my
home for the next year. We arrived after
a minor delay with the plane needing to be diverted due to a storm and then we
had to re fuel on the runway. So far KL
has been awesome the food is amazing all over Malaysia, and you can’t go wrong
with the street vendors.

So far one of the experiences that sticks out the most in my mind comes in our first worship service in Malaysia. We attended a Malay speaking church, talk about a new experience. As I attempted to follow the service I found myself looking around at the people gathered. It was clear as I looked around the praise taking place It didn't matter where or not I or the rest of the group understood the language we had all gathered to worship God and the church we attended received us with open arms helping us by translating parts of the service as they could, and what a beautiful sight and feeling. I find myself truly blessed to be serving here in Malaysia for the year and look forward to the next worship experience.

Language class starts this coming Monday, and it will be
great to finally be able to read the menu at restaurants without playing 20 questions
with Peter.